Warning over lottery scam

9:55am Monday 10th December 2007

Comments (0)   Have your say »

A SALISBURY woman has warned people to be on their guard after she was targeted in an international lottery mail scam.

Eileen Thomas, 70, received a letter from Madrid last week stating that a ticket with her name on it had won the 615,810 Euros (£440,594) top prize in Spain's 'La Primitiva Lottery International'.

The letter, on official-looking headed paper, stated: "All participants were selected from a computer ballot system drawn from 25,000 names from all over the world as part of our international promotions programme.

"Your funds are now deposited with a security company insured in your name, with insurance bond policy coverage. But, due to a mix up of names and addresses, we ask that you keep this award from public notice until your claim has been processed and your funds remitted to you."

The letter then went on to ask Mrs Thomas to complete a form which would allow her to claim her win. The form asked her to provide her name, address, phone number, full bank details, full details of her next of kin, and a photocopy of her passport.

Fortunately, Mrs Thomas had read of a similar instance of fraud some time ago in the Journal and chose to report the incident to the police.

She said: "It is a very convincing and official-looking letter and I could see how people could be conned into providing all of their personal information to these people. Fortunately for me, I had read of scams like this one in the newspaper and so I knew at once that I should take it to the police."

Detective Constable Chris Conway, from Wiltshire Police's Economic Crime Unit said: "Wiltshire Police takes these lottery scams seriously and works closely with the City of London Police which co-ordinates and investigates these scams.

"Anyone who receives information telling them that they have won on foreign lottery jackpots should ask themselves whether they bought a ticket. If not, then unfortunately the letter will be a scam.

"There are other steps that can be taken to avoid becoming a victim. If you have a letter which you are not expecting and which promises riches, search for the organisation name on the internet.

"Search thoroughly because some scams have their own bogus websites but if the letter is not genuine it is highly likely that other people who received the letter will have posted warnings somewhere. Never send them money, documents which are proof of your identify or personal details. The thing to remember is that if it looks too good to be true then it will be."

n A number of readers have contacted the Journal to warn of various different telephone scams currently being used to con people in south Wiltshire out of money.

Callers claiming to be working for British Telecom state that an accounting mix-up has led to customers' bank details being lost and that anyone with a BT account must provide all of the important personal information again.

BT has warned that this is someone fraudulently claiming to be working on their behalf and that they would never ask customers to give bank details over the phone.